Minister for Internal Security Yitzchak Aharonovich wants to bring “administrative orders” to Israeli cities, MK Miri Regev has confirmed.
Regev revealed Aharonovich’s request during a special session of the Knesset’s Internal Affairs Committee. The committee met to discuss organized crime, following a series of fatal mob-related attacks.
Administrative orders, a remnant of British Mandate law, allow police and the military to issue distancing orders, or arrest warrants, without bringing criminal charges.
Currently, the orders are used only in Judea and Samaria, against both Palestinian Arabs suspected of terrorism and Israeli Jews – primarily those suspected of involvement in “price tag” vandalism and attacks on Arabs.
Use of the orders has become increasingly controversial as more cases come to light in which they were apparently wrongly used. In mid-2013, administrative orders made the headlines when police were caught on video repeatedly using tasers on a father-of-five who was not resisting arrest; the man’s crime was refusing to abide by an unexplained distancing order which barred him from entering his own home.
According to Regev, Aharonovich believes the controversial orders could be useful in the war on organized crime. Despite a police crackdown, mob-related assassinations have continued to plague the country in recent months. On Saturday night, a man was killed in a car bombing in Tel Aviv.
Early last week, two people were killed in a car bombing in Petach Tikva. The blast injured several bystanders as well, including a toddler who was sleeping in her home.
Aharonovich’s reported call to use administrative orders has already been rejected: Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein stated last week that he will not allow the orders to be used except in matters pertaining to national defense.